1.

THE NEED OF MARKETING APPROACH IN THE MANAGEMENT OF

HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Higher education goes worldwide through a process characterized by significant changes
both in educational demand and in the educational offer. Higher education institutions are put
in a position to find solutions to problems arising from internal and external customer
characteristics. The changes in higher education from public and private sectors where
presented by authors like Kirp (2004), Maringe and Gibbs (2009), Levy (2002, 2003, 2004,
2006a, 2008), Kinser and Levy (2005).

The need for universities in the public and private sectors to address this market of higher
education in terms of marketing was due to the expansion of the private sector and the
emergence of performance universities, which led to increased competition in the educational
market. Maringe and Gibbs (2009) found that in Europe, higher education specific to
knowledge - based society has become a good and therefore it recourse to the use of
marketing tools. Levy (2006) believes that competition features differ from region to region
and from country to country as marketing tools implementation is different compared with
the acquired market experience. Marketing application in the field of educational services is
known as educational marketing, component of social marketing.
On the general, the higher education market is characterized by exchanges, transactions
between units providing educational services and organizations within the national economy
that benefits of human resource prepared in a specific area based on a curriculum and
between schools and consumers of educational services to acquire knowledge, form their
skills and abilities to fill a job. Today, this concept of change has generated a broader concept
that educational institutions have begun to develop, the concept of relationship
(Campbell2002). Considering the importance that goes to the educational market, is making it
necessary to adopt the concept of market-oriented strategic change defined by Piercy (2002)
as the organization's effort to pursue more customer requirements, to identify those factors
that determine the customer neglect, to adapt the functional structure so that the employees
know very well the requirements of customers that they try to satisfy at the highest level,
better than the competition, creating a competitive advantage. Market orientation has been
one of the most interesting research fields in the recent 20 years. The whole specialized
literature has grown from two major works published in the Journal of Marketing by
Narver and Slater, Kohli and Jaworski. Recently, some authors (Pandelica A. s.a, 2010)
believe that marketing orientation should be developed as a business model.
In higher education institutions, the ultimate goal of business should be external customer
satisfaction (students, employers, society, etc.) and internal customers (teaching and
nonteaching staff) as a guarantee of sustainability of a market institution constantly changing.
The approach of marketing educational services envisages the orientation to satisfying the
customers’ needs and using the marketing strategies to the level of university institutions
which the education consumers will identify, who are interested in the educational offer for
which they have capabilities and will allow adaptation to make it more attractive. The aim of
higher education institutions must be the determination of needs, wishes, the education
consumers’ interests, the adaptation of educational and research approach to offer
programmes that maintain or improve long-term satisfaction of their and the society’s
interests.
The process of education, the special needs of supplier services and those of the consumers
should be carefully explored as fundamental elements of the education system. The supplier
services is directly represented in the relationship with the students by the teachers who are
responsible for the generation and transmission of knowledge. The educational process is also
maintained by the necessary infrastructure, by the cultural organization, by management that
does not always accept quickly a change and for this reason the expectations of educational
service consumers are secondary. (Sirvanci MB 2004).

2.THE SPECIFIC ACADEMIC MARKETING

Contemporary marketing can be defined as: „...a social and managerial process by which the
groups and individuals obtain what they need and want by creating and exchanging products,
services, ideas or rights with other groups or individuals.” (Kotler,Ph., Dubois, B., 2000,
p.35).
The care for customer and the guidance given by him to the service organization give shape
to marketing orientation in the higher education institutions. The essential elements of
marketing orientation have been outlined by Kotler, Armstrong (1998) and are the following:
- the customer segments for which the institution is able to satisfy the needs in much better
conditions than the competition
- various, complex and dynamic consumer needs
- the coordinated marketing which refers to systemic treatment of activities from the
institution starting from the market requirements and the need for awareness that customer
satisfaction is achieved only by involving every employee Marketing Approach in the
Management of Higher Education Institutions
- expressed profitability for higher education institutions through their sustainability
education market.
University marketing has certain specific features determined by the fact that educational
services are characterized by increased intangibility customization ability, abstract character,
high cost and heavy impact on consumer. The factors that influence the university activities
are numerous (Marzo, Pedraja, Rivera, 2007): some can be controlled by them (the quality of
education, university curricula, university management), others are part of the external factors
(changes in age structure, labour market trends , educational market globalization, the
emergence of more attractive education alternatives, lack of motivation for learning among
young people, etc).
The creation and delivery process of the educational services is based on tangible elements
(buildings, equipment, staff) that consumers can partly directly contact before consumption
and also intangible elements that can be evaluated only at the end of the consumption
(intensity and effectiveness of student–teacher collaboration, the quality of internal
communication etc.). The main functions assigned to the high education institutions are those
of learning, training and shaping the personality of each student with the help of the teachers
who are dedicated to their job and to the modern teaching and communicating systems.
Added to this is the scientific research function with the role of generating, interpreting and
applying new knowledge to technological and scientific progress. In the view of Bologna
Process, the university will become an innovative creativity centre and constructive thinking
able to determine the social development of human personality in the European social and
cultural area, to create the preconditions necessary for the integration in labour market and
the professional insertion of trained specialists.

The application of marketing in higher education institutions facilitates obtaining certain

categories of benefits, respectively a better resource capacity to fulfil the mission of the
institution as a result of using marketing tools, increase customer satisfaction with the impact
on attracting customers for the upper stages of study and on the attraction of financial
resources.
The university marketing strategy is in a relationship with the higher education institution
strategy as directing the efforts and resources to accomplish the mission and the strategical
goals, it facilitates making decisions on marketing mix components.
It is considered a successful strategy that approach by which are identified the target groups
and their needs by using marketing research, followed by designing and implementing a
balanced marketing mix. The strategies by which is analysed the achievement of competitive
advantage are those that take into account variables: quality, material and human support
used in teaching and research, price level and facilities in price policy.
Obtaining an attractive reaction from the target market is conditioned by building the vision
on the education market from the perspective of university using the marketing mix, namely
the five P (product, price, placement, promotion, personal), tactical marketing tools higher
education institution can combine and control them. To create a marketing mix closer to the
identified customer needs is useful to consider the marketing mix in terms of customer needs
and desires, the costs incurred by the consumer (student), comfort, the purchase convenience
and communication activity, meaning for the four C (Kotler, 2003).

Educational product or service is a transfer of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours from one
person to another and the process by which a person is helped to acquire new capacity (1995
Alves). According to Kotler and Fox (1995), most educational services are a combination of
tangible and intangible components, therefore, insusceptible to be considered pure services.
The global product offered by a higher education institution consists of basic educational
services plus additional services for scientific research, professional practice training
activities and social and cultural services designed to meet needs of accommodation, leisure.

Educational services must be addressed on three levels:

Central (university mission, the main reason for a student to opting for a particular
university) peripheral (services that focus around the central service value and improve the
central or basic service)
and additional or complementary defined by additional benefits given to the target market.

The price of educational services includes the taxes paid by the student for his education, the
scholarship received from the state. Since the amounts received by higher education
institutions from the state budget covers a relatively small part of operating costs, in order to
ensure institutional continuity, increasingly depend more and more on school fees and,
therefore, the price becomes a very important issue.
According to Kotler and Fox (1995) price should take into account costs, demand and
competition. Little (1997) suggests that universities should opt for a variable pricing strategy,
taking into account the demand, the domain of university training. This strategy is not agreed
because there is no experience in this regard. It is important to note the fact that besides the
monetary component, students also supports so-called non-monetary, psychological and
effort costs (the proximity or remoteness of his residence, number of years of study). Kotler
and Fox (1995) believe that in the selection phase of the university is difficult to assess the
price actually paid for educational benefits since the price will be determined only after the
consumption of educational services and when the graduate is looking for a job or advances
in his career. According to Heller (1997), the price increase will determine the decrease of the
probabilities for a student to apply to a particular university.
Eiglier and Langeard (1991) believe that price is an instrument for measuring the quality of
services that students will get and the only clear information item that holds before
consumption. According to Eiglier and Langeard (1991) the immateriality service determines
the need of a good promotional communication using besides traditional means also direct
marketing.
Kotler and Fox (1995) propose as main forms of communication used by these: the
institutions, public relations, marketing communications and advertising that will strengthen
the institutional image, to shape the feeling of confidence of future students and the loyalty of
former students to provide information about institutional services, to complete information
about the institution, to encourage the initiative of prospective students to apply for the
promoted study programmes.
A very important aspect related to communication about schools is the direct communication
promoted by parents in the circles of friends, students, teachers, which is considered to be the
most used channel of communication in connection with the university. That’s why this
channel of information should not be ignored, because in case the negative information is
transmitted, the institution may have serious problems and this can lead to a real aversion to
the institution that will be difficult to change (Edmiston- Strasser 2009).

Placement or distribution in education are important aspects that university success depends
on. According to Kotler and Fox (1995) the size distribution system of educational service
may include:
- Location, physical environment including accessibility, ambience, facilities
- Study programs and their ability to attract students
- Technology, schedule.
Marketing Approach in the Management of Higher Education Institutions
Physical environment, ambience is considered by experts as having strategic importance
because it facilitates a better interaction of the institution with the external customers, but
also with its own employees, it can serve as a differentiation element between competence
and positioning among current consumers and the potential ones.
Staff educational institution is considered another strategic element because it enters in
direct relationship with the external customers, it represents the institution, is a positioning
and differentiation element in terms of competition. It is an essential component of quality
educational service, being embodied in professionalism, courtesy, empathy with the
significant role in the achievement of the organization’s objectives, in the increasing of the
institution’s contribution to the smooth running of the entire society. The educational process
should be understood as all the interactions required by the service providing, respectively the
planning of conducted activities within each program of study, their properly structuring, the
efficient management of services by identifying the operational procedures to apply and
customizing the services.

CUSTOMERS OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND RELATIONAL

MARKETING
Applying the concept of marketing in the activities of the higher education institutions
determines the need to define the customers and identify the needs and desires to satisfy them
properly. Generally the client is the individual or legal entity that acquires a product or
service from a supplier. For the university education, the client can be an individual or an
organization that makes a payment directly or indirectly for an educational service (direct
clients of university institutions, economic agents that benefit of qualified human resource,
the society that benefits from knowledge, technological innovation for business
development). From this statement, in the specialized literature it is used the concept of
stakeholders or the parties interested in the services provided by the universities, which are
represented by: students, their families, local communities, society as a whole, staff from
institutions, authorities and public administrations, employers organizations (Rowley, 1997;
Macfarlane and Lomas, 1999; Marcet, 2001; Cooper, 2002; Ernawati, 2003; Sahney, Banwet
and Karunes, 2004).
The specialized literature provides generally a wide list of authors who have defined the
customers of educational services (Winch, 1996; Galloway, 1998; Johnson and Golomski,
1999), and also the customers of higher educational, especially Madu and Kuei, 1993;
Conway, Mackay and Presor, 1994; Fram and Camp, 1995; Hebert, Della and Bass, 1995;
Cuthbert,1996).
In the education process, students occupy several positions (Veres, Hetesi,Vilmányi,2009):
- Products of the educational process resulted from the processing as raw material in the early
stage of university training into finished products at graduation - domestic service consumers
that contribute to the delivery of basic service (library, receiving services in student
dormitories)
- Workers in the learning process, a role identified for the first time by Sirvanci (1996)
- Domestic consumers of courses, of study materials, considered as the main role
of the students (Sirvanci, 1996).
Starting from these considerations, it is useful to identify students with the concept of final
user of the educational services (Veress 1999; Miskolciné Mikáczó 2006).
Educational services are interesting for the direct and indirect consumers of educational
services (students, parents, employers, society) because they satisfy a complex category of
needs. Students are interested in obtaining a balance in terms of investment of time, energy
and effort in learning and the result at the end of the training process as specialists.
Prospective employers are interested in graduates to be able to solve problems commonly
faced by the organization that will work in. The society has its own expectations regarding
the proper functioning of the economy also in the social plan due to the effort of the
graduates of higher education both during the initial training and continuous training.

In a world where information resources represent more and more the key of progress, it
becomes more necessary the concern of higher education institutions as providers of services
for a good relationship with the economic agents to which they have to offer viable solutions
for a sustainable development, both in terms of training of specialists and in terms of
scientific production.
An important role in this regard goes to the critical analysis of the relationship between
graduates as consumers of the educational and university services, essentially rendered by the
image of the university among the graduates, their satisfaction, the interaction between the
professor and the student, respectively the graduate.
Recent studies made in the field of university marketing (María Walesska Schlesinger Díaz,
2010) have shown that the competitiveness of the university is built on the relationship
graduate – university played by its image among stakeholders. The quality of student- teacher
interaction is reflected in the satisfaction of the graduate and in the content of the university
image perceived as concept with cognitive, affective dimensions.
The favourable image of the university among the graduates helps in maintaining the
relations with the graduates also after graduation and it must constitute into a strategic goal of
marketing and university management. Attracting, maintaining and strengthening the
relations with the customers represents relational marketing (Berry, 2003). It is very
important to strengthen the relationships with the existing customers for a long term success.
Graduates can become further clients as master students, PhD students and then economic
agents interested in the knowledge and the innovations created by the universities and
employers of graduates of higher education or master degree.
Relational marketing is more useful in the field of education services as it exist alternatives
for the client in choosing a service provider. It should be understood as a philosophy, as an
integrated way of thinking based on the placing on the market of a service that creates value
for both client and organization. The service providing must be accompanied by an adequate
promotion and a flexible organizational structure.
Transforming the indifferent customers into loyal customers means the real marketing
activity (Berry, 1983). In the outlining of the relational marketing strategies, Berry suggests
to consider five aspects:
 basic service,
 customizing the relationship with the client,
 service development,
 incentive price,
 Internal marketing.
Berry also believes that the most important aspect in implementing the relational marketing is
the service provision that meets the need identified in terms of quality and giving confidence
to the customer.
The quality of educational service is given by the degree of materialization, professionalism,
honesty, trust, rigor and empathy of the service. Because the result of service consumption is
the benefit that cannot be known by the client before consumption, the clients will remain
loyal to those suppliers that give them confidence.
Relational marketing, viewed as whole activities by which are developed and maintained
long term relationships with customers and with other interested parties . (Berry1983)
Gummerson (2002) extends this concept considering relational marketing as a total marketing
based on relations, networking, interaction between customers, organization, Marketing
Approach in the Management of Higher Education Institutions market and society, the
obtained value being created jointly by all concerned parties.
Gummerson added three important theories to the classic marketing fundamentals that
contribute to the shaping of relational marketing concept: total quality management,
corporate network, considering the human capital as an asset creator of value. TQM is
considered not only a revolutionary of quality management, but also a consolidation of
marketing orientation to the client, to the quality perceived by the client and by his
satisfaction.
The fundamental principles of quality management: orientation to the client, leadership,
staff involvement, process approach, the correlation of the processes that consider the
relation with the clients and with other actors from the organization arena, mutually
beneficial relationships with customers are related to the marketing approach of customer
relationship.
Rust, Zeithaml and Lemon (2000) and Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinnger (1997) have
proposed a new concept, the equity for the customer which implies satisfaction, loyalty,
profitability as elements that contribute to obtain the profit chain for each service.
Following the implementation of marketing practices, Kaplan and Norton (1996) describe the
organization capital as also being constituted from the capital given by the customers value.
To this is added the notion of intellectual capital, consisting of people holding qualities and
skills. The university should build also a structural capital represented by the connections,
relations between functional departments, organizational culture.
Hunt and Morgan (1994) have proposed building the relational marketing as network
competition, including all marketing activities by which is established, developed and
maintained the success on the market place by integrating all the value chain links (buyer,
supplier, employees).
A modern relational marketing should not be restricted only to the final customer, the
external customer. Berry believes that is useful also the consolidation of the relationships
with the internal customers (service providers), respectively the marketing approach of this
category of customers because only by attracting, retaining and motivating a quality staff it is
improved the organization ability to provide quality services, an important condition in
building a solid relationship with the clients.
Strong relationships with employees of the organization lead to a sustainable relationships
with customers.
BRAND IMAGE – THE CENTRAL ELEMENT OF SUCCESS FOR HIGHER
EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
In a market that has become competitive, higher education institutions must increasingly
consider the problem to build a successful image both among prospective students and among
employers to maintain an advantageous position on the market. The image must be
accompanied by the correct information, a good promotional communication, performing
university management based on marketing principles. So far, most universities were not
concerned enough to know the size of their own images in the minds of stakeholders. It is
important to build a brand image because the intangible component of the product offered by
the university has a considerable weight and reduces the risks posed to the future student
placed in a position to choose a higher education institution.
For the universities, the value is given by the favourable image that will benefit on the
educational market. The image of the university is a strategic component as the university
marketing operates especially with intangible aspects whose mental representation is
essential. University’s mission, the pursued purposes, organizational structure functionality
represent aspects that contribute to shaping the concept of the desired image, image that the
university would like to have among the stakeholders. It is useful to determine this by
positioning the university in relationship with other competing institutions.
Building a positive image is useful to start with an accurate communication, complete about
the capabilities, resources and strengths of the university, which in terms of image it means
the image most often transmitted or broadcast through stakeholders . Depending on the ability
to understand and value system of each person belonging to the target group, it must be
reached the image transmitted to the incoming image that has a strong subjective character.
The most important aspect in terms of marketing approach is to study the actual image that
represents the synthesis of the subjective images received at an individual level and
considered at a social level.
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "name, term, design, symbol
or any other feature that identifies a good or service as distinct from those of other sellers”.
It is an abstract concept associated with a company, product, service, and that is
reflected in a certain manner by the clients, staff, partners, investors. This abstract concept
is associated with thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes
resulting from stakeholders experience with the brand and which is materialized in
information and expectations associated with a company, product or service. A strong brand
is one of the most valuable intangible goods for any company (Clark, 2002; Keller, 2008;
Keller and Lehmann, 2003).
Berry (2000) introduces the term “brand equity service” which is determined by the brand’s
company, external communication and the service consumption experience. Since the
introduction of the concept in the specialized literature in the 1980s, it appeared more points
of view on the importance of brand equity as a marketing tool available for the enterprise :
Aaker(1991,1996), Franzen (1999), Ambler (2000), (Keller,2003). Rust, Zeithaml and Lemon
(2000) created a model for this concept of brand equity consisting of three components:
customer brand perception, emotional value that is produced to the customer, customer
loyalty to brand.
Vargo and Lusch (2004) refer to the brand as part of the intangible asset of the enterprise
services with the value given to the customers who are considered by the two authors and
also by Prahalad (2004), co-producers of value to the enterprise services.
While Prahalad (2004) and Webster (2000) consider brands to have a role just in the
relationships of the company with the final customers, (Brodie,Glynn, Little,2006) suggest
that the brand should be examined as being part of the marketing system taken as a whole.
Little (2004), who investigated the value creating process for the clients at an organization
level suggested that the notion of customer value is closely related to the service brand and
together lead to the increasing of the organization value. The service brand should be
understood and approached as a relational asset. The brands are in the middle of the
marketing activites as of the business strategy (Doyle, 2003), and building a brand equity is
considered as one of the key success factors of the organization (Prasad si Dev, 2000).
Martensen and Grønholdt, (2003b, 2004) developed a brand equity model for the customer
based on the relationship client-brand treated from the rational and emotional point of view.
In their opinion, brand equity is a mental brand that includes the mental associations of the
consumers and clients and are influenced by six determining factors: the quality of the
product, the service quality for clients, the brand differentiation, the fulfillment of promises
contained by the brand, brand trust and credibility. (Martensen and Grønholdt,2010, p.301)
Also the employees can contribute to the creating of the organization brand by the behaviour
based on courtesy, responsibility, empathy, support. Such behaviour has been Marketing
Approach in the Management of Higher Education Institutions shown to help shaping the
perception of service quality by the consumers with impact on customer loyalty.
The task of providing customers service experience in accordance with their expectations and
create a desired brand image rests primarily with the employees. That’s why a challenge for
any organization, especially for service provider organizations would be training the
employees to be able to reflect the favourable image of the organization.
The employee or human resource brand was conceptualized in several ways. (Estell, 2002;
Farrell, 2002; Frook, 2001; McKenzie, 2001, Mitchell, 2002).
A global model for the understanding of the human resource branding process was designed
by Miles and Mangold in 2008. For its designing, they started from defining the human
resource brand, the source of messages received by employees, factors that affect employees
perceptions acquired positive consequences determined by the employee as a result of
branding efforts.
Miles and Mangold (2008) appreciate that human resource branding can be understood as a
process by which employees internalize the desired brand image and are motivated to project
the image to customers and other organizational components. The internalisation of the brand
image of human resource is possible when employees receive coherent and credible messages
from the internal systems of organization. The internalization process allows employees to
accomplish better the explicit and implicit promises necessary in the process of creating the
image and brand of the organization.(Greene, Walls, Schrest, 1994).

The organization image projected by its employees and by the stakeholders represents the
central element of the success of human resource brand. To build a brand of a successful
human resource, it is necessary the organizations to create a favourable image of the
organization in the employees minds before they interact with customers, meaning to build a
strong relationship between employer and employee. Human resources branding process can
be considered as a source of competitive advantage (Miles and Mangold, 2008).
Summary
- The marketing approach is a necessity for the success of the management of higher
education institutions determined by changes both in terms of the demand of global product
offered by the university and the educational supply existent on the market of higher
education institutions
- The university marketing strategy is in relationship with the strategy of higher education
institution and forms that step by which are identified the target groups and their needs,
followed by designing and implementing a balanced marketing mix
- A competitive advantage can be obtained by considering the variables: quality, material and
human support used in teaching and research process, price level and facilities in price policy
- identifying direct and indirect customer needs and desires determines the need to implement
all actions seen as relational marketing which develop and maintain long term relationships
with customers and other interested parts as a guarantee of competitiveness of the university;
there is a rich specialized literature on this subject since the early ‘80s
- So far, most universities were not concerned enough about knowing the dimensions of their
own images in the minds of their stakeholders. It is important to build a brand image because
the intangible component of the product offered by the university has a considerable weight
and reduces the risks posed to a future student placed in a position to choose higher education
institution. The brand image of the university is built successfully if the university raises the
questions of developing also a brand of human resource in developing and maintaining a
sustainable and effective relationship with stakeholders.